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Leonard Nimoy

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I never really saw Garak as coming onto Bashir, which is odd because I'm gay and I always see homosexual subtext when there was never intended to be any. But my perception of him was impaired again because I saw season one after I'd seen 2-4. Or maybe more, I have trouble remembering a decade ago. I can barely remember yesterday.

Whether he is or not, he's Garak, and he's pretty amazing. I agree that this episode isn't the best showcase for him, but it was a pretty decent follow-up to Emissary.

I never saw that or even thought about it. My wife usually picks up on those things big time and she never did either. I never thought of Garak coming on to Bashir, I always thought Bashir an idealistic young man, fantasizing about being a spy, and Garak taking a liking to him and also fucking with him. It seemed like Garak liked messing with Bashir's mind at times.

I always thought Bashir an idealistic young man, fantasizing about being a spy, and Garak taking a liking to him and also fucking with him.

Perhaps a rather unfortunate choice of words, there.

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The seeds of the ORDERS OF DISCORDIA were planted by Greyface into his early disciples. They form the skeleton of the Aneristic Movement, which over-emphasizes the Principle of Order and is antagonistic to the necessary compliment.

I always thought Bashir an idealistic young man, fantasizing about being a spy, and Garak taking a liking to him and also fucking with him.

Perhaps a rather unfortunate choice of words, there.

You're right. Garak liked messing with Bashir's mind what I meant.

Don't worry, that was quite clear. I just found it amusing. Probably just being a little immature.

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The seeds of the ORDERS OF DISCORDIA were planted by Greyface into his early disciples. They form the skeleton of the Aneristic Movement, which over-emphasizes the Principle of Order and is antagonistic to the necessary compliment.

Past Prologue is a really strong episode. There are times in season one where I don't really feel like I'm watching DS9 yet, but not here.

This despite a basically gratuitous cameo from TNG characters.

Ugh, I hated Lursa and B'Etor in this episode. They just didn't need to be there at all. DS9 grew stronger the more it relied on what made it unique (Bajoran politics, interesting characters), instead of turning to old TNG crutches such as anomoly/forehead of the week, and random TNG guest stars.

Past Prologue is a really strong episode. There are times in season one where I don't really feel like I'm watching DS9 yet, but not here.

This despite a basically gratuitous cameo from TNG characters.

Ugh, I hated Lursa and B'Etor in this episode. They just didn't need to be there at all. DS9 grew stronger the more it relied on what made it unique (Bajoran politics, interesting characters), instead of turning to old TNG crutches such as anomoly/forehead of the week, and random TNG guest stars.

They didn't do a whole lot though, so I liked the in and out reference.

I never really saw Garak as coming onto Bashir, which is odd because I'm gay and I always see homosexual subtext when there was never intended to be any. But my perception of him was impaired again because I saw season one after I'd seen 2-4. Or maybe more, I have trouble remembering a decade ago. I can barely remember yesterday.

I'm in the same boat as you, I only saw this episode after watching the rest of the series so I never saw the gay subtext, although I did feel that something was off about the performance. I didn't get that Garak was coming on to Bashir until I read that snippet from Andrew Robinson. But just look at the comments on this clip, a lot of people out there clearly picked up on it.

My personal explanation for it is that Garak assumed that Bashir was gay and hit on him in order to have a way in with the command staff, and when he realised that Bashir wasn't gay he cut it out. I don't think that Garak was gay, straight, bi, or pan, but that he was willing to swing whatever way he needed to in order to achieve his aims.

Speaking of "Andrew Robinson". I now have a funny image of Garak staring at an upside down sign in Manchester and thinking that Cardassians would never make such a mistake.

Personally, I looked at it from several angles at first watch. I couldn't decide if Garak was a spy, a homicidal psychopath looking for a victim, hitting on Bashir, or all three at the same time. And then I had cycles of theories going by the end of the first season.

While we're on the topic of 'Garak Revelations', I honestly couldn't tell if he was a dude or a gal for a while there - I'm talking at least 3 or 4 episodes worth. Robinson played him so asexually, plus some of his outfits didn't do his 'moobs' any favors.

I think that Garak was likely gay or bisexual. However, I am not sure what his degree of interest in Bashir really was, in that way--whether he used behavior that could be taken as sexual advances as a means of throwing Bashir off balance, or if there was anything there.

As for Bashir, I see nothing that suggests any interest in men. One would expect that someone as observant as an Obsidian Order agent would notice that. Which leads me back to the deliberately unsettling/manipulation theory, a ploy to keep Bashir guessing about Garak's objectives.

My personal explanation for it is that Garak assumed that Bashir was gay and hit on him in order to have a way in with the command staff, and when he realised that Bashir wasn't gay he cut it out. I don't think that Garak was gay, straight, bi, or pan, but that he was willing to swing whatever way he needed to in order to achieve his aims.

Yeah I can get on board with that. Spies would do anything to get closer to confidential information, so Garak would be totally willing to do whatever was necessary.